"Listening to even one episode of "Cold War Conversations" will make this sprawling, potentially intimidating period of history feel vivid and compelling." The New York Times
Experience the Cold War like never before with Cold War Conversations — an award-winning podcast.
Each week, host Ian Sanders brings you raw, firsthand accounts from the people who lived through one of history’s most tense and transformative eras — soldiers, spies, civilians, and more.
These aren’t stories from textbooks. They’re unfiltered voices from the frontlines of history — emotional, gripping, and deeply human.
This is Cold War history, told from the inside out.
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Hungary 1956: Twelve Days That Shook the Soviet Empire (479)
Season 36 · Episode 479
Friday, October 23, 2026 • Duration 01:00:18
At 5:20 on the morning of 4 November 1956, Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy went on the radio with a desperate announcement: Soviet forces were attacking Budapest. Within hours, tanks and artillery would crush one of the most dramatic uprisings of the Cold War.
But how had a student demonstration just twelve days earlier grown into a national revolution that brought Hungary’s Stalinist regime to the brink of collapse?
In this episode, we follow the extraordinary story of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956: from political terror and secret police repression to the demonstrations of 23 October, street battles against Soviet tanks, workers’ councils, Imre Nagy’s remarkable return to power and Hungary’s attempt to break free from Moscow.
We also examine why the Kremlin briefly considered withdrawing its forces, why it changed its mind, and why the West watched as Soviet armour returned to Budapest.
For twelve extraordinary days, freedom suddenly seemed possible.
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode479
Listen to our episode “A freedom fighter in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution” here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode159/
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation.
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
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o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode474
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What did Jacqueline Kennedy privately believe about the JFK Assassination? (478)
Season 36 · Episode 478
Friday, October 16, 2026 • Duration 50:31
What did Jacqueline Kennedy privately believe happened in Dallas on 22 November 1963?
In the second part of Peter Lamas’s extraordinary story, he recalls the trust he developed with the former First Lady while working as her personal hairstylist.
During preparations for an event marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Peter says Jackie spoke candidly about the shooting, her desperate movements across the presidential limousine and her fear that she might be killed next.
She also shared her doubts about the official account and her belief that Lee Harvey Oswald had not acted alone. Peter then recounts the controversial allegations he later heard from Marita Lorenz and others concerning the CIA, anti-Castro Cubans, organised crime and figures connected to Dallas.
These claims remain disputed, but together they offer a remarkable insight into the suspicions, trauma and unanswered questions that continued to surround Kennedy’s assassination decades later.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4xKDoGE
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode478
Listen to our episode “The JFK Assassination: The human stories behind one of history’s most scrutinised events” here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode454/
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,.
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in thewarm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your
life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR
CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode474
Help me preserve Cold War
history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free
episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the
warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we
also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your
life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR
CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
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My Cuban Encounters with Hemingway, Batista, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro (477)
Season 36 · Episode 477
Friday, October 9, 2026 • Duration 59:32
What happens when a Cuban teenager who has lost his homeland finds himself sitting across the lunch table from Fidel Castro?
Peter Lamas recalls an extraordinary childhood in pre-revolutionary Havana and a life touched by history. He describes meeting Ernest Hemingway, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.
Political upheaval forced his family to flee Cuba, leaving everything behind. Beginning again in New York with little money and no English, Peter found kindness in unexpected places—before a remarkable invitation brought him face-to-face with Castro, the man he blamed for uprooting his family, in an unforgettable and deeply painful encounter.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4xKDoGE
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode477
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,.
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in thewarm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your
life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR
CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
From Mao's Red Guard to conscription into the Chinese People's Liberation Army (476)
Season 36 · Episode 476
Friday, October 2, 2026 • Duration 57:28
At twelve years old, Bing became a Red Guard—and for a few intoxicating months, he felt invincible.
Growing up in Mao’s Beijing, Bing was taught to worship Chairman Mao, recite the Little Red Book and attack the old order. But the Cultural Revolution soon turned against his own family.
His parents were condemned & sent to labour in the countryside, his grandmother was driven from Beijing, and Bing was left to care for his nine-year-old sister after she suffered a devastating injury during a Red Guard raid.
Later conscripted into the People’s Liberation Army, Bing endured brutal conditions in Manchuria while preparing for a possible Soviet invasion just twenty miles from the border.
His extraordinary journey would eventually take him from an oilfield and a reopened Chinese university to America—where he fulfilled his grandmother’s dying wish by reuniting a family divided by the Chinese Civil War decades earlier.
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode476
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Birth of Poland's Free Trade Union Solidarity (475)
Season 36 · Episode 475
Friday, September 25, 2026 • Duration 01:06:27
One morning in August 1980, the noise of 10,000 shipyard workers suddenly stopped. Something extraordinary was happening.
As a young shipbuilding student, Bogdan finds himself inside Gdańsk’s Lenin Shipyard as workers down tools and the movement that will become Solidarity begins to take shape. What follows is a remarkable journey through the final decade of communist Poland.
Bogdan recalls student occupation strikes, the shock of martial law, encounters with riot police, and his unconventional escape from military conscription by becoming a teacher. He describes his first intoxicating glimpse of the West in Vienna and West Berlin, where two worlds exist just metres apart across the Berlin Wall.
Then, in the summer of 1989, Bogdan and his wife board a flight for Canada with borrowed money, a few possessions and no certainty about what comes next.
This is a deeply personal story of resistance, freedom and starting again.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4y3dlLC
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode475
Bogdan's website & other book purchase options https://www.bogdanmarzewski.com/book
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Growing Up Under Communism on Cold War Poland’s Baltic Coast (474)
Season 36 · Episode 474
Friday, September 18, 2026 • Duration 01:08:13
Bogdan was born just a month before the Berlin Wall went up—and left communist Poland a month before it came down. In between lay a childhood shaped by shortages, censorship, compulsory conformity and a growing determination to escape.
Raised in Słupsk, a formerly German city near the Baltic coast, Bogdan remembers crowded post-war housing, Saturday school, packed Catholic churches and a world where bananas, meat and even bicycles depended on contacts and barter. His family carried deeper scars: wartime forced labour, a father shot while fleeing captivity, and an uncle whose unexpected return from Britain reunited relatives separated for decades.
Yet everyday life also brought football, music lessons, Western films and quiet mockery of a system few truly believed. Convinced that shipbuilding offered a route abroad, Bogdan entered university—and found himself at the Gdańsk shipyard in August 1980, just as Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity changed Poland forever before his eyes.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4y3dlLC
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode474
Bogdan's website & other book purchase options https://www.bogdanmarzewski.com/book
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
If the Soviets Invaded : Sweden's Secret Underground Resistance Plan (473)
Season 36 · Episode 473
Friday, September 11, 2026 • Duration 47:01
For decades, ordinary Swedes secretly prepared for the day Soviet forces might occupy their country. Farmers, factory workers, gamekeepers and travelling salesmen were recruited into a clandestine resistance network, trained to operate radios, use dead drops, scout escape routes and, if necessary, sabotage an invading army.
Historian Johan Wennström joins me to reveal the extraordinary story behind Sweden’s Stay Behind organisation. He explains why officially neutral Sweden quietly collaborated with MI6, the CIA and NATO, how the organisation preserved its secrecy, and why the royal family and government might have fled to Britain. We hear of mysterious Sunday walks, ammunition delivered to railway stations, aerial “elk surveys” concealing reconnaissance missions and the cyanide capsules for use if an operative was captured.
It is a gripping account of patriotism, secrecy and sacrifice—and of hundreds of volunteers who carried the burden of a war that, thankfully, never came to Sweden.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/4gJADz2
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode473/
Swedish Fighter pilot episode https://coldwarconversations.com/episode386/
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bandit Country - The IRA and South Armagh (472)
Season 36 · Episode 472
Friday, September 4, 2026 • Duration 01:07:59
During the Cold War, British soldiers fought a Provisional IRA insurgency in Northern Ireland. Probably the toughest location was South Armagh, where they had to travel by helicopter, while watchtowers scanned the fields, and an IRA sniper could strike without warning.
In this episode, journalist and Royal Navy officer Toby Harnden takes us inside his book “Bandit Country”, which describes the borderland of South Armagh where the Provisional IRA fought one of its most formidable campaigns.
Harnden recalls arriving during the uneasy peace of 1996, meeting IRA members and security personnel, and learning how family ties, local knowledge and the Irish border made the South Armagh Brigade unusually effective.
We explore its sniper teams, homemade mortars, intelligence networks, the massive London & Manchester attacks, Libyan weapons and attempts to bring down British helicopters. Harnden also examines the Kingsmill massacre, the devastating 1979 Warrenpoint ambush, alleged Garda collusion, and the British Army’s deployment of the SAS.
Finally, he reveals the brigade’s scepticism towards the Good Friday Agreement—and asks whether the old republican flame still burns beneath South Armagh’s landscape today.
Buy the book and support the podcast here https://amzn.to/45GF60h
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode472/
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A Czech Border Guard’s Daring Escape to the West (471)
Season 36 · Episode 471
Saturday, August 29, 2026 • Duration 01:23:34
What happens when the man guarding the Iron Curtain decides to escape through it himself?
In 1975, Jiří Barteček was a Czechoslovak border guard, trained to track fugitives with a German shepherd and ordered to stop anyone attempting to reach Austria. Yet Jiří had no intention of defending the communist system. Haunted by the Soviet-led invasion of 1968 and determined never to shoot an innocent person, he secretly studied the border’s weaknesses and planned an audacious escape.
One night, accompanied by two friends and carrying his AK-47, he disabled the alarm, slipped beneath the wire and plunged into a river crossing. His ordeal did not end in the West. After days hiding around Vienna, Jiří entered an Austrian refugee camp—where an unknown gunman twice tried to kill him.
This is a story of courage, chance and survival, told by the border guard who turned the Iron Curtain against itself.
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode471
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Twenty-Six Years Apart: A Family Reunited Behind the Iron Curtain (470)
Season 35 · Episode 471
Friday, August 21, 2026 • Duration 54:33
For twenty-six years, war, exile and the Iron Curtain kept one Polish family apart. Torn from his homeland and sent into Stalin’s labour camp system, Aleksander Jablonski survived hunger, forced labour and a wartime journey through Russia, Iran and Italy before fighting at Monte Cassino.
When the war ended, returning to communist Poland was impossible. He built a new life in Britain, but the family he had left behind remained painfully out of reach. Then, after more than a quarter of a century, came the chance to cross back behind the Iron Curtain.
In this moving episode, his daughters tell a story of separation, survival and a reunion in communist Poland. It is also the story of a Polish community in Britain, the children who inherited its memories, and the enduring pull of a homeland that distance, politics and time could never entirely erase.
Additional thanks to Stefan Hales-Józefczyk and the Leek Polish Connection for welcoming me into their group and allowing me to record this story.
Curated episode extras https://coldwarconversations.com/episode470
Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation,
You’ll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history.
Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/
If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link.
Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in
your life! Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/store/
CONTINUE THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION
o BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social
o Threads https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations
o Twitter/X https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod
o Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/
o Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/
o Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations
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